CSC Policy Library database
Document Author / Sonia Johnson
Document owner / Children’s Social Care, Education and Clinical Commissioning Group
Review date / This document is to be reviewed a minimum of every 3 years, the next review to occur no later than January 2018. Incremental reviews may take place as required.
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Please contact:
Policy and Research Officer
Children’s Social Care
Bracknell Forest Borough Council
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Market Street
Bracknell
Berkshire RG12 1JD
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Table of Contents (Press F9 to refresh)
1Introduction
1.1Scope of Policy
1.2Key Legislation and Guidance
2What is a Personal Budget?
3Who is Eligible for a Personal Budget?
4What can be included in a Personal Budget?
4.1Personal Budgets for Education
4.2Home to School Transport
4.3Personal Budgets for Health
4.4Personal Budgets for Social Care
5What is a Resource Allocation System?
6Costing/Best Value
7How individuals get their money
8When can you ask for a Personal Budget?
9Managing and using a Personal Budget
10Personal Budgets and the Local Offer
11Managing changes in circumstances
12Who would be excluded from holding a Personal Budget?
13Appeal Process
14Ceasing Personal Budget Payments
1
1 Introduction
Co-production is at the centre of our approach to support children, young people and families. Personal budgetsmodel co-production; and mean genuinely working with all partners; includingfamilies, children and young people, parent carer forums and local providers, to meet the outcomes desired by and for the child or young person.
1.1Scope of Procedure
This procedure relates specifically to children and young people aged 0-25 with Special EducationalNeeds and/ disability and their families.
This relates to the duties ofBracknell Forest Council’s Children’s Social Care (CSC) and other relevant partners being :-
- Adult’s Social Care
- Education
and
- The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
1.2Key Legislation and Guidance
Primary legislation - The Children & Families Act 2014
The Care Act 2014
- Secondary legislation - The Special Educational Needs (Personal Budgets) Regulations 2014
- Statutory Guidance - Special Educational Needs & Disability Code of Practice: 0 - 25 (2014, Department of Education)
Additional sources of information with regard to the legal framework. Related relevant legislation and guidance:
- The National Health Act 2006
- The Children Act 1989
- The Chronically Sick & Disabled Persons Act 1970
- The Equality Act 2010
- The Mental Capacity Act 2005
2What is a Personal Budget?
A personal budget is an amount of money or resources made available to a child, young person or their family/carer in order to deliver the outcomes for a child or young person set out in theirsupport plan(s). The principle behind a personal budget is to ensure that families have control of the funding allocated for their child’s care and professionals can then support families and work with them in a creative and personal way.
Families have told us that knowing how much money there is available to meet their child’s needs has helped them to choose the right provision to best meet the outcomes identified in the child or young person’s care plan.
Personal budgets can be made up in the following ways:
- An organisational arrangement - no money changes hands. Parents find out how much money is available and with support identify the different ways to spend that money meeting the outcomes of the child’s care plan. The services are then arranged on the family’s behalf by the Local Authority, Education or Health Service.
- Third party arrangement/nominees- a third party organisation, trust or nominated person holds the money and supports parents to decide the best way to spend the funding, they then buy the services chosen on the families behalf.
- Direct payment–Parents are given the cash to buy and manage the services themselves to meet the outcomes identified in the child’s care plan.
- A combination of the above.
In addition to the funding identified through the assessment process, some parents may want to use a reasonable amount of their own resources to further support the outcomes identified in their child’s care plan.
3Who is Eligible for a Personal Budget?
Any eligible child, young person or their family/carer can request apersonal budget for aspects of the provision outlined in their Education Heath and Care Plan (EHCP) if parents or young people wish it.
Eligibility for a personal budget will be restricted to children and young people assessed as needing support on a Level 3 or 4 of the thresholds and the Multi-Agency Needs/ Risk Matrix used by Social Care. The four levels are:
Level 1 – Needs are/ can be met through engagement with universal services
Level 2 – Emerging needs. Requires assessment and/ or early intervention
Level 3 – Needs are causing concern and will require a targeted response
Level 4 – Need is severe. Requires specialist and/ or statutory services
The statutory regulations state:
“Direct payments may only be made if the person:
(a) Appears to the local authority to be capable of managing direct payments without assistance or with such assistance as may be available to them;
(b) Where the recipient is an individual and is over compulsory school age;
(c) Does not lack capacity within the meaning of the 2005 Act to consent to the making of direct payments to them or to secure the agreed provision with any direct payment; (this means the person must have the mental capacity to manage a budget) and
(d) Is not a person described in the Schedule.” (see part 6 of this policy, to seewho this applies to).
4What can be included in a Personal Budget?
Exactly what could be included in a personal budget, relating to an individual child or young person, would be outlined in the child’s EHCP or social care plan. It includes full details of need and proposed costings.
To monitor the cost of support, as outlined in the Children and Families Act 2014 and related guidance, we will employ a value for money approach towards all expenditure. This means that we will work flexibly with parents and other providers to procure what is requested by the family.
However, we will be able to exclude some areas from being subject to personal budgets if this would destabilise a service provision for others attending it e.g Larchwood. This would also apply to other areas where it is difficult to disaggregate an individual cost from an overall amount (Code of Practice 9.103 to 9.106).
4.1Personal Budgets for Education
Personal budgets are an allocation of funding made forchildren and young people with SEND and their families, after an assessment of their needs, and will be outlined in an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). It will cover aspects of the Plan that can be offered as a personal budget. It will not cover thecost of a named educational placement.
At the point of the nomination of the name of the school/ college the aspects of a personal budget that could be part of a plan will be outlined, if parents/young people have expressed a wish to have a personal budget.
Funding components for education are split into three elements. Elements 1 and 2 are either integral to the school’s funding or are spent at the discretion of the school. These two elements would not be available to include in any personal budget. The three elements are explained below:
- Element 1 funding is the amount the school receives for every pupil who attends the school, normally around £4,000. This is irrespective of any SEND requirement and is used by the school to fund the building and staffing requirement.
- Element 2 funding is the amount of money delegated to a school in order to augment funding for children assessed as having an educational need – up to £6,000 per student with recognised SEND need that they can, at their discretion, use to support that student’s learning.
- Element 3 funding is anything over and above £10,000 per pupil per year and is over and above the combined amount, of elements 1 & 2 that the pupil would need to support their learning. This funding is also known as the High Needs Block funding and is eligible for inclusion in a personal budget.
If a parent or young person chooses to use a personal budget to pay for support staff in their school or college, they would need to seek permission from the Head Teacher prior to any other agreement or plans being made. This discussion should occur at the earliest possible opportunity.
Therefore, any discussion about the direct employment of support staff within a school would need to be carefully planned as part of the assessment process and agreement for the personal budget. Part of the discussion with a parent and young person will be the difference in the allocation of an education element if the parental/young person’s choice is mainstream or special provision (as outlined in the Code of Practice 9.112).
Any staff employed in schools/ colleges would haveto follow that institutions code of conduct, for instance in speaking to others and dress.
4.2Home to School Transport
If requested, and the transport criteria, as set out in Bracknell Forest Council’s SEN Transport Policy are met, an amount per mile(outlined in the Annual SEN Transport Policy) would be granted if a personal travel budget was requested. As previously stated, this will also be subject to ensuring not only value for money, but not destabilising current services that would negatively impact on other service users.
The Bracknell Forest SEN transport policy is available from:
4.3Personal Budgets for Health
A personal health budget will make it clear to parents how much money is available for the healthcare needs of their child. They can then discuss and agree the best way it can be spent, to meet the outcomes in the child’s care plan. This funding will not be able to pay for care normally received from a family doctor or emergency care.
For more information, please read ‘Understanding PersonalHealth Budgets’. Within Berkshire, a personal budget request can be made by or on behalf of a child who is in receipt of Continuing Health Care funding (CHC).
It will also apply to long term health needs from April 2015.
4.4Personal Budgets for Social Care
Personal budgets are an allocation of funding made forchildren and young people with SEND and their families, after an assessment of their needs and will be outlined in an Education, Health and Care Plan and/or a Social Care Plan.
From September 2014 children and young people with additional needs in Bracknell Forest, who are eligible for Children’s Social Care Services (CSC), can request a personal budget for their needs.
CSC want to offer children and young people with disabilities and their families more choice, flexibility and control over the services that they are assessed as needing from social care, to help achieve their goals. For some families a personal budget may be the best way of doing this.
A Social Care Personal Budget is money that can come from Social Care which families can spend on services and support for their disabled child or young person’s needs. It can be used for services from both statutory and independent sector providers, mixing and matching what is available from different organisations.
A personal budget can only be used to fund the identified support needs that have been outlined in a child or young person’s support plan. If a family or young person wishes to spend their personal budget on something that is not stipulated In their agreed plan, they must seek and receive approval to do so.
A personal budget cannot be spent on anything that is illegal.
Children’s Social Care will operate a Resource Allocation System to ensure fair access.
5What is a Resource Allocation System?
A Resource Allocation System, often referred to as a ‘RAS’, is a points based system, based on individual needs, and is a way of making fair and equitable allocations of funding to the whole population of children and young people eligible for support from a funding source.
The RAS will initially give an Indicative Allocation, the Personal Budget amount is then set and agreed following approval of the Support Plan. The final amount of the Personal Budget could be more or less than the Indicative Allocation.
6Costing/Best Value
The EHCP/ Social Care plan will be costed, within a value for money context (e.g. not costing more than services provided directly).
For children and young people in receipt of services from CSC the Resource Allocation System will be used to quantify need and compare costs.
Throughout the child/ young person’s journey and statutory assessments, there will be a cycle of ‘understand–plan–do–review’ .
The resource allocation process will allow co-production of the plan whilst ensuring it meets the value for money aspects.
7How individuals get their money
If an EHCP is in place and a personal budget is agreed, CSC has a system in place to administer money and make direct payments. If the opportunity arose for a pooled budget with Health and/or Education this would be considered on a case by case basis.
Any agreed costs from Health would be paid by an agreed process to fund the plan. The money will be given to parents of the child or to the young person on a 4 weekly basis. The eventual aim will be for pooled budgets between Health and the Council.
Parents of a child or the young person themselves will be expected to sign a Direct Payment Agreement before any payment is made. This agreement willoutline the parameters of use of the payments, how it should be managed and how spend will be accounted for. It will also outline other aspects, such as any employed people having to have an enhanced Disclosure Barring Service (criminal record) check. Further information can be found at:
Although there will normally be a set amount of money paid on a 4 weekly cycle there may be one off payments, for instance around specific equipment needs, that could be paid via the direct payment mechanism. A value for money judgement will be made in these circumstances. Any equipment would need to meet professional specifications and plans for the maintenance of theequipment would be required. If used in a school or other similar setting, agreement from the setting would need to be given prior to use.
8When can you ask for a Personal Budget?
A request can be made either during a Statutory Assessment (at the draft Plan stage), or when an Education, Health and Care Plan or Social Care Plan is being reviewed/ re-assessed.
When a Statutory Assessment of SEND commences, if eligible, the personal budget process will be discussed with the family and young person. They must be asked if this is something they may be interested in pursuing. The benefits and responsibilities around the personal budget will be explained. The Local Authority also has a leaflet explaining the process.
If the family are interestedin receiving funding partly, or completely, through a personal budget, a Resource Allocation Questionnaire will be completed and an indicativeamount will be givenat this stage.
Some families may already be accessing personal budgets in terms of care, and these will continue throughout the statutory process, and be incorporated, as relevant, in the final EHCP if one is issued. Additionally some families who are not currently accessing a personal budget for care may wish to pursue this.
9Managing and using a Personal Budget
Parents will have control of the agreed personal budget, both managing the funds and spending them. From the end of compulsory schooling (Y11) this will change to the young person whose plan it is, unless unable to do so under the Mental Capacity Act, or the young person requests that the family manage the funding on their behalf.
A discussion about who will be responsible for the Personal Budget will occur at the point of transfer. If it is decided that the budget should be placed with the young person, they and their family will be offered support in order to minimise problems, stress and failure.
A social worker or mental health worker would normally make the decision about mental capacity in terms of the specific question concerning the young person’s capacity to manage a personal budget at that point intime. The process would only be applied if a personal budget was requested and would be about the management of the personal budget and ability to make decisions about this, in terms of meeting the outcomes and provision set out in the Education, Health and Care Plan.
The Direct Payments team will provide general support and assistance to recipients of personal budgets. If further or specialist support is required by the young person receiving payments, this will be discussed further and the best placed person or team will deliver this. Usually this would be the Lead Professional.
Clear information about services and provision available in the area that could be used with a personal budget will be available via the Local Offer:
10Personal Budgets and the Local Offer
The“local offer” site is a web based resource that will allow individuals and families to see what is available to them in their area. It will be updated on a regular basis to show what is currently available. This will be a main source of information about support and activities that can be included plan.
If a parent or young person wishes to use provision not listed in the Local Offer they should approach their Lead Professional/ Social Worker, SENCO,Education or relevant Health professional. If this provision needs validating to be part of the local offer a process will occur to enable this decision can to be made. Providing the resource or activity is legal, accredited and/ or safe and appropriate.